


Resonance

by Alexis_universe (orphan_account)



Category: Soul Eater, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Connie is also one, F/M, POV Second Person, Soul Eater AU, all the gems are weapons, soul mates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-19 11:44:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7359928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Alexis_universe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Connie Maheswaran goes to Beach city, strange stuff begins to happen to her</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work is a repost of a fic i posted earlier. I kinda thought that mamy people didn't find its format appealing so i just edited a few stuff and changed the title for something shorter.
> 
> Nevertheless. Enjoy

Your name is Connie Maheswaran, daughter of Priyanka and Doug Maheswaran.

Your father is a private Beach guardian, this means that your family is bound to move frequently, so you never had the time to try to make friends, but even if your family could be established in a single place, you think that no one will want to be friends with someone who prefers to read fantasy books in the beach instead of going swimming, or build sand castles in the shore.

Ironically enough, that's how the most crazy day of your life began.

You were thankful that your mother had accepted that job at Delmarva's state hospital last year, because that meant that you won't be moving from town any time soon. You also were thankful that your mother had let you go alone to Beach city, a little touristic town you went with your parents when you first moved to Delmarva's suburbs last year.

You don't know why, but you were fond of that place for some reason unbeknownst to you. You simply felt the sensation that you had to be there.

So one beautiful spring morning, you left your House wearing a cream colored blouse alongside a mint colored skirt (a combination that highly contrasted with your brown skin and long, flowing dark hair) with a pair of orange boots and a pair of pink tinted glasses within a red frame adorning your face, headed towards the bus station alongside one of your favourite books: The first book of the Unfamiliar familiar series, you took the bus to Beach City (the town itself wasn't very far away from the suburbs you were living in, so the travel to there was quick, causing you to got to your destination in 30 minutes). Once you reached the small town, you made your way into the farthest part of the town, to a side of the large hill with a lighthouse facing the ocean, there you saw something strange: a giant statue in the shape of a woman at the end of the peninsula Beach City was settled in, you took a moment to admire it, you observe that the statue was REALLY old, noticing the vines and cracks covering her only arm and what appeared to be its hair, even if it appeared to be the less intelligent thing to do, you decided to take the shade the woman was doing alongside the hill it was embedded to.

The day was beautiful, the sea was sparkling, and the water looked appealing enough to go for a swim, but you preferred not do so (the reason that you are reading over the beach and not enjoying the water is mainly because you don't know how to swim), the ocean breeze was moist and salty, the sound of the waves was relaxing at best, the sand beneath you was soft and comfortable and occasionally the whole ground would shake due to earthquakes (which were ocurring every now and then, even though earthquakes were strange to happen in Delmarva, but you just ignored them when you were walking towards the beach). 

You were sure that someone was near to you, since you heard a voice that appeared to be Bragging about some bicycle, but you simply ignored the voice and returned to your lecture. Sometime after that you felt the ground under you shaking again, making a piece of the statue you were using to shelter yourself from the sun to fall apart.

You are pretty sure that if it weren’t for that boy(and the mysterious forcefield surrounding you both), you probably may be dead right now.

Your savior asks you if you are fine, to which you absentmindedly say yes. He introduces himself as Steven Universe, you give him a quick glance, and you analize him, he looked a little bit young compared to you, he was wearing a pair of short jeans, a pair of pink flip-flops and a pink T-shirt with a big yellow star in the middle of it, he had black curly hair and was a little bit corpulent for a kid, You simply say that your name is Connie and you ask what just happened, he said that he is member of the “Crystal Gems”, a group of magical ladies that protect the humanity from demons, at the same time he was telling you that, he showed you his belly were there was a pink gem where his belly button should be, and that he was walking down the beach when he saw the falling debris of the statue about to crush you (he tried to sound convincing, but the nervousness in his voice made you sure that he was lying).

You ask him about the pink bubble encasing you both, and Steven said that he had no idea since that was the first time something like this had ever happened to him, you both stay silent for a while until you ask him again how much longer the barrier will be present, Steven realizes this and then makes some visible effort in trying to make the bubble disappear, after failing, he convinces you to go and search for help, he immediately says that the Gems will know what to do, and you both start to move towards the front of the giant statue, where a Beach House was resting over two pairs of hands, Steven tries to get to the Beach House but fails to do so because of the uneven terrain the sand was creating, after giving up to try to get the Gems, you both decide to get help from other sources including going with a pair of his friends who work at a donut shop to see if they can pop the bubble, using a boats' harpoon on the barrier, only for the shot to be reflected towards the vessel and finally, trying to make a roller coaster ram the barrier in order to shatter the incredibly resilient sphere.

You are sure that the last plan goes awful after you both are thrown into the of the ocean by the roller coaster.

You try to stay as calm as you can as the pink bubble slowly sinks to the bottom of the seafloor, meanwhile Steven keeps that everything is going to be ok with a slight hint of nervousness on its face (but the fact that you are underwater and that you don’t know how to swim, is slowly eating your calm demeanor). After walking in the bubble over the ocean floor for a while you suddenly begin to feel something: some kind of energy beside you, an oddly familiar and gentle one, you turn your head around hoping to find the source of it, only to find Steven enjoying the ocean's scenery through the bubble.

You kept on walking for a while until a giant worm –which seemed to have at least 10 meters of length and had five short tentacles around its mouth– happened to swim right over you both, you almost freak out, if it weren’t for Steven reassuring you that it’s harmless and that it only eats luminous seaweed, but inmediatly after Steven managed to finish his sentence, the monster opened the inside of its mouth while shaking violently, you saw that the creature’s hundreds of teeth were similar to an inside out circular chainsaw, the teeth also began to spin inside its gaping mouth as if it were one. And even if that scene was disquieting, the thing behind them was even more, a reddish gemstone was resting at the very back of its throat, you almost thought that the stone was an organ as it seemed to palpitate, but you threw the assumption into a window when you noticed that the thing producing the pseudo-palpitations was really the stone increasing and decreasing its unnatural orange glow.

Possibly the most disturbing aspect of the giant worm was the sensation that the creature was exuding a dark, and intimidating aura around it.

Rigth after the menacing dysplay, the creature forced it’s way under the seafloor with its chainsaw-like teeth in order to consume the seaweed that was bound to it, producing an earthquake, you almost want say out loud that the creature was the one who make the earthquakes that got you inside of this bubble, when the floor beneath you both cracked open.

You both are now in the worst possible scenario and yet, your only company says that he will take you both to safety and that everything will be ok.

You suddenly snap and the next thing you know is that you are yelling at Steven, telling him that you are going to disappear from the face of the earth and the only ones who will notice your absence will be your parents, because you don’t have any friends. You sit in the bubble’s bottom and you begin to cry, almost lamenting going to the beach that day.

But then Steven talks to you, his voice has no hint of anger or resentment and you feel that welcoming energy once again, he calmly asks you if you want to be friends, giving you a blue glowing bracelet, a bracelet that you recognize. He then explains to you that the reason of why he was at the beach that day was to give you that bracelet, because he saw you lost it a year ago during a parade at this town, suddenly you remember him, he was the boy who was saluting people over the carwash's float in the parade, you giggle and remark that he had a lot of bubbles over his hair, he gave out a little laugh as he corrected you saying that he was a brush, he gently apologizes for all the things that you experienced today as he put the bracelet in your right hand, but you were quick to reassure him that, even if this day, no matter how weird and scary was, it was also the most exciting day you had in your entire lifetime, you certainly admit that you had fun.

No more than 3 seconds after that, the seemingly indestructible barrier sorrounding you disappeared with a ‘pop’, leaving you both underwater. Steven helped you to reach to the surface, and when you managed to get to the shore, the worm monster that was lurking the waters a moment ago, appeared behind you.

Now that you were out of the water you could hear that the monster’s glowing gemstone was indeed producing a heartbeat-like sound, and if the scene before you couldn't get more frightening, the beating sound of the gem was drowned immediately by the horrifying cry the beast began to make, something between an agony scream, an angry roar and a revving chainsaw.

The ominous aura from before also came back stronger, causing your body to lock itself and making it impossible for you to move as it fixed its multitude of red eyes in your direction.

You thought that you were going to die the moment the beast was about to charge towards you. You suddenly felt something yanking your arm and your body unlocks, you turn your head to see what it was. It was steven’s hand who was leading you to some abandoned docks (probably to avoid taking the monster to the town, you guess). He releases your hand as you reach the underside of the wooden planks suspended by pilars and you both begin to run in opposite directions, hoping that the monster won’t follow at least one of you between the underside of the docks. The plan works… for Steven, who was forgotten by the monster, which was somehow focusing in you and you alone, Steven wondered why the monster was only following you when he suddenly realized, it was the bracelet, it was its blue glow what was calling the creature forth. After realizing this Steven ran towards you, he took the bracelet of your hand and began to run in front of the monster.

After a great maneuver made by Steven, the creature was now tangled between the pillars beneath the docks and after trying to get free of its predicament, the monster broke all of the pillars and it was crushed to his death. You swear that you almost heard its cry getting a little bit sad before its demonic red eyes faded in color and its entire body turned black and explode in a gray mist.

You gazed into the smoke and you saw the only remains of the demonic creature, the dark red gemstone that was at the monster's throat. It exuded the same kind of energy the monster was producing, only at a very minor scale, you inexplicably want to reach to it but then you hear footsteps in the sand. 

You turned towards the footsteps and you saw three women running to you both, you saw that there was something odd in that three women, to start one of them was a little bit taller than you, she was wearing a gray baggy top with black leggings with star-shaped tears at her knees and white boots, she had purple skin and had a mane of lavender hair that obscured one of her deep purple eyes, another one of them was tall and very skinny, she was wearing something that would only be described as a blue ballerina outfit with a see-through skirt and a tiny star in the middle of her chest, she also had a very prominent nose, her skin was inhumanly pale and had pink hair, the last one of them was even taller than the skinny one and even if she had a normal dark tone of skin (a little bit darker than yours), she was wearing a strange kind of bodysuit divided in black and a deep red color with a half star over her chest, her hair was styled like a squared afro, and though it was nighttime, she was wearing a pair of shades obscuring her eyes.

The trio of women were already odd in that matter, but there was something that you couldn’t not notice, they all had a gemstone embedded in their bodies, the purple one had one deep purple stone in her chest, the skinny one had a oval shaped stone resembling an oversized pearl on her forehead and the dark skinned one had two In the palm of her hands (Wait a minute... how did you know they were in there?, you didn’t even saw her opening her hands towards you), you could also note that the women had something in common with the horrible creature that tried to eat you a moments ago: they were radiating energy. The kind of energy you felt when you were in the bubble with Steven.

The skinny one drew closer to the remains of the creature and she encased the precious stone in a bubble similar to the one Steven created earlier that day, just to make it disappear into thin air.

The three of them spoke to Steven, asking him if you were fine, you immediately said with starry eyes that he was incredible, and before he could told them a very abridged version of what happened that day, the purple woman began to tease him about something, then the skinny one said that you must be the girl Steven mentioned to them in the morning, you could feel your cheeks redden as well as Steven’s, and before the pair of women could embarrass any of you any further, the taller of the three silenced them and said something about them messing Steven’s ‘funky flow’, eliciting a nervous laugh from Steven, then she turned around with the other pair and then walked towards the giant statue on the beach.

However, just before the taller one turned around, you could see that there was a tiny grin in her face, a grin that seemed to be directed towards you, You thought that she might knew something about you, something that even you ignored about yourself.

You Didn't knew why...

But you had the feeling that this weird day only was the first one of many others....


	2. Those who protect the earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pair of days later, Steven decided to invite you to his house.  
> What could go wrong?

You left your house a saturday morning, wearing the same clothes you wore when you went to the touristic city the last time you went there.

You took the exceptionally fast bus in the direcction Beach City was, excited to visit Steven, he was your only friend after all.

Once the bus left you at the station in Beach City, You made your way towards his house, taking the same route you took the other day to your reading place near his house (A short walk from the station to the broadwalk and keep walking in the direction of the building with a giant donut on its ceiling until you reach the Beach littered with rocks).

When you got to the edge of the peninsula where the statue and the house were, you stood in a shaded place where a little mailbox was, looking at the statue and the house resting at its lap, feeling nervous about your meeting with Steven.

After a moment of consideration, you gathered enough courage to do what you wanted to do here. You walked into the stairs connecting the deck of the house with the little rocky hill that was on the Beach. As you advanced towards the house, you felt energy coming from inside of the building, You thought that the women who showed up that night at the beach were in there.

Once you reached the deck and began walking towards the door, you heard a loud boom when the door of the house was launched into the beach at full force.

You turned to see the thrown away door, where a green bug resembling a beetle with the size of a football was writhing in pain before disappearing in a puff of smoke. You turned your head towards the door to see what could hit it with strength enough to break the hinges on the wall, when you saw the dark skinned lady from the last time, wearing a pair of oversized gauntlets with sharp gems embedded on the knuckles in each of her hands.

"Hello." The woman said as if she didn't just broke a door with her fists, "You must be Connie, please come in."

You did as she told you and when you entered the house you had your mouth agape, inside the house there was a battle against more of the beetles you saw before, but the thing that really surprised you were the women fighting with the colorful insects. You could see that the purple woman's arm appeared to be covered by a multitude of thorny vines which were lashing and grabbing the bugs to kill them as they did with the other one who was launched along with the door. The skinny woman on the other hand was piercing and impaling the beetles with her left arm, green blood spilling on her skin until its owner's body evaporated, disappearing with it.

"Where is Steven?" You asked while looking at the battle.

"He'll be home in a moment" The dark skinned lady said casually while crushing another bug under its gauntlets.

"Uh... Sorry if this interrupts you, but...What are those?" you pointed at the insects, trying to not look scared of them.

"These are Spirit beetle larvae." The Skinny one said impaling another one with her arm (which if you looked closer it would appear that her forearm was actually a spear), "They are not very dangerous but they can be a nuisance if you let them to finish their growing."

"AAH!!" You screamed, as a beetle jumped at your position, just to be wrapped up by vines and thrown away to a wall where it crashed and died.

"´Kay guys, I believe that was the last one." Said the Purple one as the vines on a side of her body and the purple gem on her chest glowed brightly as they became her arm.

"Th- Thank you." You said as you stared in awe at the bizarre event.

"You're welcome kid" Said the strange woman.

The other women also dismissed their weapons in the same fashion the purple woman did, causing the unknown energy in the house to diminish to a point where it was recognizable 

The purple one's energy was playful and lazy.

The skinny one's was giving you a certain neurotic vibe, but it had a hint of gentleness and love within it.

The dark skinned one was powerful, but other than its intensity, you could feel nothing coming from it.

You kept staring at them until one of them talked to you.

"Yo girl! What's with that look?" Said the purple one, "Haven't you seen a person turn their arm into a weapon before?"

"Uuh.... No?" You answered.

"AMETHYST!!" Yelled the skinny one. "You know that no one else on this planet can do that beside us!!"

"Relax Pearl, I was only joking with her, Right Garnet?" Aaid the purple one, which you assumed to be Amethyst.

"Yes." Said the one you presumed to be Garnet.

"Urgh..." Groaned the person that Amethyst referred as Pearl, before turning her head towards Garnet. "Also, Garnet, Can you tell us why you let this human to enter the house while we were fighting the beetles?"

"She came here to visit Steven, Pearl." Said Garnet as she put her gem-embedded hand over your shoulder. Causing Pearl to blush slightly in embarrassment before directing her gaze towards the missing door, "He must be here at any moment now."

Just in that instant you felt a very familiar energy coming from outside accompanied by a voice: "WOAH!!! What happened here guys?" it was Steven.

"We had to fight some Spirit beetle larvae that entered the house" Said Pearl, Who now was sitting in a couch in the living room "How did your visit to the car wash went, Steven?"

"Oh it was Great guys, I composed a new song with dad, and it's very good, do you want to hear it?" Steven said as he was about to go upstairs to where his bed was, when a pair of dark skinned hands held him up above the floor.

"Steven, I believe that you should attend your visits first." Garnet said, putting his feet on the floor.

"Visits? What visi-. "Steven stopped talking when he saw you standing in the middle of the living room.

"Hi." You awkwardly said, waving your hand in his direction.

"Oh gosh!" Said Steven with embarrassment in his voice, pacing back and forth in the middle of the living room, "I can't believe that I forgot about you coming here! I didn't even got time to tidy up the place or to get myself presentable for you! I even forgot to get the snacks for today!!"

He ran towards the fridge in the kitchen, looking for said snacks.

"Don't worry about it Steven, I believe that spending quality time with your father is more important that hang out with me." You said in an effort to calm him down.

"Do you really think so?" Steven said as he took his head out of his fridge.

"Of course, actually, I was enjoying the company of your friends here." You said pointing your thumb at the women who where scattered around the living room.

"Oh!" Said Steven as he was smacking his forehead with his hand, "How did I forget about that too?"

Steven took you by your hand as he dragged you to the middle of his house and sat you on the couch, while he was arranging the trio of strange women in front of you.

"Alright Connie, I present you to.... THE CRYSTAL GEMS!!!!!” Steven said while gesturing his arms in the trio's direction, "Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. Crystal Gems, I present you to Connie!!" 

You felt your face growing red in color as Steven jazz-handed towards you. You waved your hand slightly to the 'Gems', trying to do your best to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Nice to meet you Connie" Said Garnet in a soft tone.

"Yes! It is always a pleasure to meet a friend of Steven!" Said Pearl with a smile on her lips and a small blueish blush on her cheeks, still embarrassed by her little argument with Garnet.

"Yeah! it's nice to finally meet you girl, Steven couldn't stop talking about you all the week" Said Amethyst with a mocking tone.

You could see the face of Steven turning a bright red from embarrassment.

Garnet seemed to notice this and said: "Let's leave the kids alone for a while, we need to find the beetle mother and destroy her before she gets here."

Amethyst and Pearl nodded at her orders and left the house through the threshold of the broken door.

"Have fun with your little date little man!!” Said Amethyst just before leaving, making you and Steven blush intensely.

"So...." You said in a in effort to end the uncomfortable ambience Amethyst left in the room. "Why don't you show me the song you wrote with your dad?"

"Y-Yeah, of course!" said Steven, still embarrassed from his friend's behavior.

★ ★ ★

Approximately an hour after the Gems left the house in search for a potentially dangerous creature (and listening a very good song about pizzas), You and Steven were watching a medical soap opera in an old TV placed on the little loft his bedroom was (your Mom didn't let you watch it at home, she said that it was inaccurate and unrealistic).

You were lying over your belly in the edge of Steven's bed, while Steven was sitting on the floor besides you. The energy radiating from his body was warm and soothing, it gave you a feeling of belonging you never felt before. 

You took a look around Steven's house. It was bigger than what it seemed on the outside, on the first floor there were two sets of couches in the living room, one right next to the entrance and another one below the loft Steven's bedroom is placed, in front of them was a medium sized coffee table. There was a small metal fireplace was next to them. There also was a full kitchen at the right side of the house, it had two pair of cabinets in the walls close to the ceiling above the sink and over the kitchen's bar, which had some stools. The house's bathroom was directly under Steven's bedroom. In Steven's bedroom there were some shelves built inside the wall, with several pictures, rocks and souvenirs. He had a nightstand next to his bed where he had a Cookie Cat alarm clock (You wonder how he managed to get one, Cookie Cat merchandise was very rare, maybe that's why they stopped Producing them.), a tome of Sailor Moon (That you wanted to borrow from him when you get to know more about each other), and a kazoo, he had several posters over his wall, a large curtainless window was also adorning the bedroom's wall, he had a small amount of action figures scattered around his TV where there was a similar mess made of Nintendo GameCube games.

But there were two things in the house called your attention the most, the cave-like back part of the house and the portrait hanging above the main door.

The 'cave' was using a tiny space of the terrain in the house, there were some puddles of water with some small stalagmites rising some centimetres above the water, on the center of the cave an opaque glass-like panel was laid on the middle of the floor and a strange door with a Star in its middle was on the wall behind it. The mysterious door appeared to lead inside the statue the whole building was resting on.

The portrait on the other hand, was over the door leading to the outside and it was beautiful. It depicted a woman with a pinkish tone of skin and long pink curly hair, she was wearing what it seemed to be a white dress with a star-shaped hole in her belly, revealing a familiar pink gemstone where her navel should be, she had a calm expression on her face and her hands were peacefully placed over her lap. 

"Steven?" You asked him, making him to tear his eyes away from the screen.

"Yes, Connie?" Steven said with a slightly puzzled expression.

"Can I make you some questions?" You asked, trying to not look or sound desperately curious.

"Of Course! Ask me anything you want to know." Said the boy with a smile.

"What are the Crystal Gems' work?" You began.

"Oh! that's an easy one." Said Steven, confidence radiating from him, "They protect the earth and mankind from demons, like the worm we fought the other day."

Fought? You? You were sure that the only thing you did was run for your life meanwhile Steven was tangling the worm in the docks. 

You continued with your interrogation.

"Do they always do that thing?" You asked.

"Yes! they're always busy protecting people." Answered Steven, who didn't get what you were asking.

"No! Steven, I meant, Do they always turn into whips and spears?" You corrected.

"Oh, Yes, but they only do that when they're fighting," Said Steven, Blushing a little, "Except for Amethyst though, she often uses her whips to reach for the cabinets where Pearl puts the cookies."

You giggled at the mental image of the small purple lady using her vine-like arm, only to get some cookies.

"What is your relation with the Crystal Gems?" You continued to question him.

"Well, you could say that they're my family" Said Steven, "They are helping me to discover the powers of my gem"

"Powers like the bubble you made the other day?" You asked.

"Yeah! When I told my dad that I created a bubble, he bought us pizza and donuts to celebrate my advance!!" Answered a very happy Steven.

"Now the you mention it, Why did you went to visit your dad? Is there a reason for him to not live here with you?" You ask again, hoping that the question is not indiscrete.

"Actually, yes." Steven answered, not being upset in the minimum. "He doesn't live here with me because of my training. The Gems believe that it'll be safer for him to stay as far as possible from gem stuff" He kept talking, his mood grew darker with each word coming out of his mouth, "But don't worry, my dad is living not so far from here, he owns a carwash and he used to be a rockstar. You see this shirt?" He pointed at the clothes over his chest, "It was part of his merchandise when he traveled to all places during his tours! However, he wasn't really famous, so he didn't had audience in some of his concerts. But that changed when he came to give a concert here on Beach City, nobody went to his performance except for a pink haired lady, that was the first time an audience listened to all of his songs..." He paused for a moment to turn around to the painting over the wall, " And the first time he saw my mom."

You turned to see Steven's mom painting over the door, then you looked at Steven's melancholic expression as he admired the framed picture, moisture began to gather in your eyes.

"Is your-" You stopped for a moment to avoid sadness from invading your voice, "Is your mom, here with you?"

"You could say so," Said Steven with such melancholy that you felt the aura around him changed, turning a bit sadder and lonelier, "Pearl Told me, that my mom being a Gem, couldn't be able to have a baby with a human, However, my mom really wanted to have me, so she used her magic powers to make me. She also told me, that in order for me to be born, she had to give up her physical form so she could give me her Gem..." He clutched his stomach, where his gem was, "In a sense, she's always with me."

 

At this point it was undeniable that the sadness of Steven's story made the moisture in your eyes form into tears.

"Are you alright?" Said Steven, noticing the water in your eyes.

"Yes, I'm ok" You said as you cleaned up the wetness on your face, "Thank you, for answering my questions, I'm sorry if I made you feel sad."

"Nah, don't worry" Said Steven in a more happy way, however, his usual behavior didn't masqueraded the sadness from the aura exuded by him, "Maybe, if you want, you could tell me about you next time, that's only fair, don't you think?"

You smiled at him, now with your doubts about his 'family' solved and his aura once again, radiating with warmth and joy.

"Of course, Steven" You said giving him a smile which Steven returned before you both returned to watch the forgotten show.

Five minutes later, you felt an energy outside the house, an energy familiar to the one the monster at the docks used to produce.

"Steven, I believe that we should get out of here." You said, remembering the incident at the docks.

"Wh- Why should we?" Said Steven nervously, Looking impatiently into the window, where the intimidating aura was coming from.

"Do you remember that the gems said that they were going to search for the mother of the beetles?" You asked, Steven nodded as a response, "I believe that she's here."

"How do you know?" Steven asked this time, the dark presence getting closer.

"You may not believe this, but..." You paused to inhale some air, "I can feel her."

"What?" Said Steven full of disbelief, "How!? I thought that only the Gems could do that!"

You were about to answer his question with another one of your own, when the demon's energy became more intense, at this point, you heard Garnet's voice began to call for you both: "KIDS, GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! NOW!!"

You obeyed instantly, running down the stairs that led to Steven's bedroom and passed through the missing door's threshold into the deck of the Beach House.

You saw the Gems about to start a fight with a giant version of the beetles that appeared in the house almost two hours ago. It had at least 4 meters of height and 5 meters of length, it had a pitch black exoskeleton covering its bright green junctures, its body was held close to the ground by three pairs of huge segmented legs, three pairs of Yellow eyes were focused on the Gems, between them was resting a black horn resembling a Trident pointing upwards, underneath it there was a proportionally huge mouth full of sharp teeth.

You thought, that if this Creature was the same kind of monster the worm at the docks was, it must had a gemstone hidden somewhere in its body.

The Gems were already armed, Pearl having her right forearm replaced with a white Spiraling spear, Amethyst had replaced both of her arms into what a person without knowledge would mistake as black vines and Garnet turned both of her hands into a pair of menacing red gauntlets.

Steven took you by your hand as you both ran down the stairs outside your house and decided to find refuge behind of the many broken parts of the statue that were behind the Gems.

A mighty roar was the signal for the gems to start their attack. Amethyst moved to the left side of the beach the beetle was, and moved her arms towards the head of creature, causing her many whips to shut the monster's mouth in an effort to hold him steady, as Garnet and Pearl jumped high in the air readying their weapons to attack the beetle's head. The Spirit Beetle countered, shaking its head viciously, hitting the pair of airbone Gems with its horn and sending Amethyst flying in direction of the Beach House with enough force to break the wall she crashed into (You guessed that this incident was the reason Garnet told you to leave the house, since the wall that was destroyed, was the one on the side of Steven's bedroom.)

After Pearl and Garnet recovered from the impact, they tried to continue their attack. Pearl jumped again into its head –This time succeeding in not being knocked down by the creature's horn– were she stabbed three of its eyes, blinding the left side of the monster successfully, while Garnet was fruitlessly trying to harm its armored legs with punches that had enough power to make ripples in the sand.

When the beast cried in pain when Pearl was blinding it with her arm, it moved part of its body upwards, shaking her off, and exposing its bright green underside.

"Steven!" You said to the boy next to you, "I have an idea of how to defeat this thing!!”

"Really!?" Said Steven worried about his friends "How!?”

"The beetle's exoskeleton is an indestructible armor, but a moment ago, when Pearl stabbed it in the eyes, it moved its body to shake Pearl off and also exposed a very green part of it, which means..." You said to Steven, waiting to see if he understood your train of thought.

"That the beetle's belly has no armor?" He said tentatively.

"Yes!!” You said with excitement and confidence flooding your voice, "That's its weak spot!!!"

You finished your sentence when a purple blur came crashing into the sand next to you. It was Amethyst, who returned to combat when you started to talk to Steven and was sent flying again towards your hiding spot by the beetle.

"S'up guys" Said Amethyst with a relaxed tone of voice, even though her upper body was buried in the sand.

"Amethyst!!" Said Steven, "Connie just found out that the beetle's belly has no armor!!"

"Thanks dude! This boy is very tough..." said the purple woman, while pulling her head out of the sand with the help of her whips, "Let's show him how much tougher we are." She said in a rather menacing way before dashing off to where her comrades were, to tell them about your discovery.

After listening your vital information, The Gems put a plan in motion. Amethyst wrapped her whips in two of the legs in the right side of the creature, While Garnet moved to the left one at lightning speed, delivering a uppercut so powerful that its strength was enough to make a side of the gargantuan beetle to move skywards, after this, Amethyst moved under the legs that still were on the ground to pull her whips, forcing the black monster's most vulnerable part to face upwards.

"Pearl! Let's end this now!" Said Garnet to Pearl, who simply nodded.

Garnet dismissed her gauntlets, as Pearl ran to her side, a white glow began to engulf her slim form, until her entire body became a stream of light that was directed to Garnet's bare hands.

The light materialized itself in the form of a long, white spear, similar in appearance to the smaller one that was Pearl's forearm, only that this one had a blue glowing blade that radiated energy, similar to Pearl's, but several times more powerful, an oval shaped gemstone laid in between the spear's white staff and its spiraling glowing blade.

With the spear in her hands, Garnet jumped high into the air, where she threw it into the now vulnerable monster's underside. The power of the spear was so immense, that when it hit its target, the resulting impact created a large crater in the beach.

Being mortally wounded, the Spirit beetle let out an agony cry before folding his jet black legs into his damaged belly, its remaining yellow eyes became gray in color as its energy faded away. Its body exploded into a cloud of smoke after that, leaving behind a tiny green gemstone and the spear that ended its life.

You and Steven moved out from your hiding place into the crater the spear created, when you got there, you saw the blue spear's tip stuck in glass, alongside the monster's remains.

Garnet landed next to you like a super hero. Steven showering her with compliments.

"Wow Garnet! That was So Cool!!" Said the excited boy with stars inside his eyes to Garnet.

"Thanks, Steven." Said the tall woman as she put the remains of the creature in a magenta colored bubble, and went to retrieve the spear that was left on the ground, "But I'm not the only one who defeated it, isn't Pearl?"

"That's right!" Said the spear with Pearl's voice (At this point you kinda just assumed that this was normal at the Universe household, but still, you were shocked by how a spear could talk), "I also helped Steven!"

"Aren't 'cha forgettin' someone who gave you vital info in how to wreck that thing?" Said Amethyst, who showed by the crater at that moment, offended by Pearl's voice.

The spear was engulfed by light again, this time changing back into Pearl's slim form.

"Oh, right, How could I forget?" Said Pearl with sarcasm in her voice, "Thank you Connie, we could not have done this without you."

You blushed at the compliment, while Amethyst was clearly annoyed by it.

"Pearl! That was awesome!! How did you do that?!" The overexcited boy next to you asked her.

"Well Steven, You know how we can turn part of our bodies into weapons, right?" Says Pearl in a lecturing tone, "We can do that because we have the ability to modulate our soul's vibrations in a way that allow us to create a weapon that comes directly from our soul, letting it materialize as a part of our body..."

Pearl stopped a moment to show Steven her right forearm turning into a spear as a demonstration.

"We do this as a way to fight and protect ourselves." Pearl continued, "However, this way of fighting requires a lot of practice and is very hindering, as we lose mobility and maneuverability in combat, and also we cannot exhibit all the power our soul is capable of..."

Her body became cloaked in light again as she became the spear that killed the demon just a moment ago, Her new form was catched midair by Garnet.

"But if we concentrate our vibrations into our body, we can change form completely, gaining more strength and new abilities!” Said Pearl in her Spear form.

"But this form is useless if used alone." Garnet stated. "In order to use this form you'll need a partner you can trust, one with a powerful soul capable of amplify your power at its maximum and most importantly, one capable of wielding you fearlessly in battle." She added to Pearl's lesson, appearing to look at you behind her shades.

"Woah..." Steven said impressed by her lesson, "Can I do that too?!"

"Maybe Steven" Said Garnet, while Pearl changed into her normal self, "We Don't know if you can turn your body into a weapon. We don't even know if your powers will be weapon related."

"Oh, I see." Said Steven, a little disappointed.

"Don't worry little dude" Amethyst reassured him, "We're sure that you will, I mean, what's the chance of you never showing any powers at all?"

"AMETHYST!!!" Yelled Pearl.

"I'm kidding Pearl, relax." Said Amethyst jokingly.

Pearl grunted at Amethyst's comment.

"Don't be sad Steven, your powers will show up at their own time." Garnet reassured Steven as her lips moved upward to form a unperceiptable smile, making the boy to mirror her action, before turning her head towards the broken wall on Steven's house

"Alright Gems, we need to fix the house before it gets late..." Said Garnet to her partners.

Amethyst groaned in disgust, while Pearl took her by the arm and started to drag her towards the house.

"I hope that this didn't ruined whatever you two were doing" Said Garnet.

"Don't worry Garnet..." Said Steven, "We were going into the big donut after we finished watching 'Under the knife', Connie never ate a donut before."

"Yes Miss Garnet, don't feel bad about it, Steven promised me that he would show me the city properly." You said.

"Hmm..." Hummed Garnet, "Have fun then, the house will be fixed by seven" When a huge piece of the wall fell over the deck, breaking it, "Maybe by eight."

You said goodbye to all the Gems and began walking along Steven, in the direction of the big donut.

"So... How come that you can feel soul vibrations Connie?" Steven asked you after three minutes of walking.

"I'll answer your question if you tell me what are those soul vibrations you are talking about." You condition Steven.

"Well, Garnet told me that the soul vibrations are some kind of energy released by someone's soul..." Steven said as he tried to explain the concept to you, "She also told me that we Gems can perceive them as emotion radiating from a person, I didn't knew that people could do that too!"

"Oh, Thank you..." You said, "Guess its my turn now."

"You know Connie, you don't have to tell me if you want." Said your friend.

"No, I want to tell you, you might be the only one who knows about this..." you said, Steven responded with a nod, "Ok, it all started when we fell into the ocean in your bubble, when we began to walk to the shore, I could feel some kind of energy coming from you, and when we washed up in the docks, I could feel the creature's aggressiveness radiating from it."

"You know?" You said a moment later, "It's kinda weird. I had the sudden urge to be here, on this city, the day we met. Do you think that we were destined to meet each other that way?"

"Maybe..." said your friend, "I'm not sure, my dad says that destiny works in several and strange ways."

"Says the kid that lives with literal weapons in his house." You said jokingly.

You both started to laugh as you reached a building with a giant donut on its ceiling.

You entered the donut shop, where Steven assured you that they sold the best donuts in the world.

You exchanged cell phone numbers, promising that next time you see each other, you will take him somewhere, you thought that maybe you could go to the movies and watch some action thrillers.


	3. Movie day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You convinced Steven to watch a movie with you.

It first started a night after your visit to Steven’s house.

You were re-reading ‘Familiar Unfamiliar’ again in your bedroom. Your mother was sleeping (She was resting from three consecutive shifts at the hospital) while your father was watching some detective TV show in their bedroom when you felt them.

You felt your parent’s ‘Soul vibrations’ (as steven called them) radiating through the walls in the direction their room was. Their energies were much smaller than the ones the gems produced, almost unperceivable, but if you concentrated on them, you could feel their presence with more intensity. Because of the energy being almost imperceivable, the emotions that usually accompanied the gems' were almost inexistent in your parents'. Said remnants of emotion didn't felt like anything in particular, they just felt like it you were seeing into something from a great distance, like knowing that there is something over there but you cannot see exactly what it is.

You wondered, why you could feel the gems' emotions through their energy but cannot feel your parents' with the same intensity.

You decided to ask that question to Steven or the gems on other day.

★ ★ ★

The next weeks were uneventful. The most interesting thing that happened during that time was a call you made to steven when your parents were working.

“Hello?” Said Steven's voice through the phone.

“Hi! Steven!” You said, excited to talk with him again.

“Oh, hi Connie!” Said Steven, “How are you?”

"I'm fine Steven, I just came back from my tennis practice." You said.

“That Sounds awesome!” Said an excited Steven. "Can you tell me more about that?"

"Um, well... Today my teacher made me and other students to play matches against each other, to see how much we have learned." You said to Steven while twisting the phone's cord in your fingers.

"Wow..." Said Steven amused. "How many matches did you win?"

"Well, I don't like to brag but I won all of my matches." You said, bragging.

"That sounds so cool!" Exclaimed Steven.

"It's not really that cool Steven, actually, it was pretty boring if you ask me." You confessed him. "Okay, you asked how I were, now it's my turn. How have you been?"

"I'm good, I found myself a little pet after a mission with the gems" He said.

"Aww, that sounds cute. How did you called it?" You asked like a four year old in front of a puppy.

"I called him Lion, It's pretty big for a cat but I love him and he loves me." Said Steven, verbally bragging about his pet.

"That's adorable Steven." You said to him, "What other thing you did on these weeks?"

“Well, Pearl tried to teach me how to swordfight after we watched a samurai movie two weeks ago,” Steven began to tell you the story, ”But she got impaled by an hologram she created and then the hologram tried to kill me and then sh-“

“WAIT! PEARL WAS IMPALED!?” You asked shocked to the boy, “HOW IS SHE?! IS SHE OKAY?!”

“What? Yes!.” Said a calm steven, “She’s fine Connie, she just got ‘poofed’“

“Po-poofed?” you asked in an incredulous tone.

“Yeah, the gems’ bodies are not actually real, they are made of soul vibrations instead, and if their bodies are destroyed, the soul residing at their gems will start to make another one real quick.” Explained Steven.

“Is that so?” You said a little bit calmed down, even though you didn't knew what he was talking about.

“Yup, nothing to worry about.” said Steven.

None of you spoke for a while until you remembered the reason you called him in the first place.

“Oh, I just remembered the reason I called you Steven.” You said, "Would you like to come and watch a movie with me?"

"Yeah, sure," Said a interested Steven, "What is it about?"

"Well it is a action thriller about a dog with an helicopter propeller on its back," You said as you were trying to explain the plot of the movie.

"That sounds awesome!!" Steven exclaimed, "When can we watch it?"

"Well... It premiered a couple of weeks ago so I don't know... Maybe tomorrow?" You told him after checking your agenda for the week in your head.

"Cool! Come by my house tomorrow at noon then, I'll take you to the movies." Said Steven, excited about watching a movie with you.

"Okay, I will" You said about to hang the phone when you remembered something else, "Oh, and Steven?"

"Yes, Connie?" Asked your friend.

"Can you buy some snacks before I get to your house? Please?" You asked him.

"Uuh... Sure, why?" He asked again.

"My parents won't let me eat snacks from the theater..." You said, "But they didn't said anything about eating snacks from OUTSIDE the theater."

"Woow... You're really smart Connie" Steven said.

"Th-Thank you Steven" You said with a blush on your face. "I have to go, please say hi to the gems for me."

"Of course, take care!" Said Steven.

"You too." You said as you hanged up the phone.

★ ★ ★

The next morning, you managed to convince your mom to let you go to the movies with Steven, promising not buying anything from the theater except for the tickets.

You took the super fast bus to Beach City and took the usual route to Steven's house.

You were wearing denim overalls with a mint striped shirt with red shoes (a more casual outfit that the one you wore every time you came over to Beach City).

Once you reached the end of the peninsula, you walked into the house, there was only one source of this energy this time and by the emotions coming from it, one could only assume that the source was Steven. You moved towards the repaired door (You kinda waited for the door to burst out like the last time you were here) and knocked on it.

"Coming!" Said Steven's voice from the inside.

The door opened revealing Steven behind it.

"Hi Steven!" You said to Steven, happy from seeing him again.

"Hi Connie! Please come in!" Said Steven gesturing to the living room.

"Are the gems here?" You asked as you entered the house.

"Nope. They went to retrieve some ancient gem artifact of some sort." He said while sitting in one of the stools of the bar and patting his hand on another one. "Wanna take a seat?"

You walked towards the stool and looked at the bar before sitting on it. Over it were laying several snacks: A large bag of chaaps, a jar of cheese puffs, two large cans of cold apple soda, and a box of candy. Next to them, there was a Cheeseburger shaped novelty backpack (You recognised it from a certain online store that specialized in food shaped bags) you assumed it was Steven's.

"Are they coming back soon?" You asked again.

"Maybe. They should come back any moment." Steven answered, "Do you need to talk to them?"

"Actually, yes." You told him, "I have some questions related to something you called: Soul vibrations."

"What kind of questions?" Questioned Steven.

"Well, the first one would be: What do you mean with 'souls' and its 'vibrations'? followed by: Why I can feel them? and finally: Why the gems are the only ones who I can feel clearly?" You answered.

"Well, I would like to tell you but, I'm fairly new to this whole soul business." Said Steven, trying to help you answering those questions, "I think that we should wait for the gems to be around so they can explain us why you can do that."

"Yeah," You said in a sad tone of voice, "Maybe we should do that."

There was silence for a while until Steven talked.

"Hey, um, maybe you could tell me what movie we're going to watch while we wait for them." Steven suggested.

"Oh, that's right, Can you lend me your phone for a sec?" You asked him.

"Sure," He pulled out his phone from his pocket and gave it to you, "Here you go."

You opened the Tube-Tube app on his phone, and typed 'dogcopter 3 trailer' in the app's search bar, and played the video you were looking for.

After a solid 2:50 minutes of explosions and out of context clips, Steven had his eyes shining as if there were stars in them.

"Whoa... I can see why you want to watch it." Said Steven in awe.

"I knew that you would like it. I believe that its premise is very attractive: 'In a world where humanity is pushed to the brink...'" You said as if you were a trailer announcer, "'It turns out, that the most human of them all, is a dog... copter.'"

"And did you see where that missile came out of?" Said a very excited Steven.

You giggled a little before saying: "Yeah" with a smile and a blush on your face.

"I just hope that it stays faithful to the books." You said expressing your dislike towards the producer house of the franchise, who had a story of modifying the adaptations of different licensed products, like the disastrous 'No home boys' graphic novel you still regret buying.

While you were complaining about the faithfulness of the movie, a noise was heard as the mysterious plate above the floor of the cave-like part of the house lit up and shot a ray of light to the ceiling. You were amazed at the spectacle, but Steven kept his usual face, as if he was acostumed to this.

"The gems are back." Said Steven.

And true to his word, through the light, you could see some shadows arranging themselves into three familliar silhouettes. As the light faded, the silhouettes were revealed to be the Crystal Gems, who were posing as if they were some characters of a manga you read on the internet.

The gems were wearing the exact same clothes you saw them wearing the other times you saw them, except for Pearl, who now was wearing a mint blue sleeveless blouse with a yellow star on her chest, she had a long green sash wrapped around her waist, a pair of yellow shorts a pair of pink socks and over them a pair of blue ballerina shoes. You wondered if her different appearance was related to Steven's story on the phone.

The room was now filled with their energy.

"Greetings Connie" Said Garnet as she noticed you sitting next to Steven.

"Oh!" Said a surprised Pearl, who had her eyes closed before arriving, "Well, Hello Connie! What a surprise to see you! ”

"What were you kids up to?" Amethyst asked as she stepped out the plate.

"We're going to the theater to watch a movie about a weird flying dog! Show them the trailer Connie!" Said Steven, Who totally forgot about the questions you had for the gems.

"Well, it's actually a lot more than that." You said as you showed the trailer to the trio of women in front of you.

Another 2:50 minutes of toy selling clips of video (Which you still enjoyed to watch) later, Amethyst had a smug grin on her face.

"Pfft! Why'd you want to watch that..." Said Amethyst before turning into a shapeless blob of light that became a real dogcopter with a purple gemstone on its chest.

Amethyst's impression of the dogcopter began to hover in the air were she declared: "When you can see the live action with magic right here!" Then, the head of the dogcopter became light before turning into a jukebox capable of playing music.

You stared in awe at her display, Garnet was bobbing her head up and down with the beat of the music, Pearl grunted with a disgust face and Steven just didn't appear to be impressed with it at all.

"Stop showing off Amethyst." Said Steven, apparently numb to this kind of things. "Connie promised me that this movie is going to be better than any magic"

"I never said that." You told the gems.

"We even got our own snacks!" Said Steven as he moved along to the bar where the snacks where.

"My parents say that I'm not allowed to buy snacks from the theater, so we're not buying anything from the theater" You explained to Garnet and Pearl.

"Ooh, snacks!" Said Amethyst as the jukebox on dogcopter turned into Amethyst's head and moved towards Steven and the snacks. "FEED ME!!"

"No Amethyst! These are for Connie and me to share at the movie!" Said Steven to Amethyst while covering the snacks with his arms.

While Steven was busy fending off Amethyst-copter, you decided to ask some questions to the pair of gems standing next to you.

"Hey, um..." You said nervously as you turned towards Pearl and Garnet. "You'd mind if I asked you some questions?"

"Well, actually we ca-" Said Pearl before being interrupted by Garnet.

"No, Please ask what you need." Said Garnet.

You inhaled sharply in an attempt to ease your nervousness, "Okay, first question: When you were talking about your power to turn into weapons the last time I was around, you mentioned that the power comes from your souls, what did you meant by that?" 

"Amethyst I'm Serious!" Said Steven in the background.

"In the most simple way of explain it: The soul is the essence of life, every living thing has one, but only a certain few species can control an energy that proceeds from it. We call this energy 'Soul Vibrations'. We gems are capable of channeling this vibrations in different ways we call magic." You turned to see Amethyst, taking her new form as an example while Garnet explained the question in an almost monotone voice. "Any other question?"

"Yes, Is it possible for a human to feel said energy?" You said asking what you believed was your most important question.

"Well, it is possible, but is very rare for a human to detect the vibrations of another soul. Maybe if the human in question has a particularly strong soul, they could be able to perceive souls." Explained Pearl. "Is that all what you wanted to know Connie?"

"Come on Ste-man! Just give me a can!" Said Amethyst as her fight for the snacks continued.

"Actually, there is one last question I want to do." You said without nervousness in your voice. "If hypothetically speaking, I could feel said energy, what should I feel?"

"You should feel the souls vibrations as energy surrounding people and animals, alongside an emotional aura coming from them." Garnet began to explain. "However the intensity of this aura may vary between people, With individuals with powerful souls having a more notorious aura in comparison to others, So the aura that you should feel coming from us would feel different from the ones your parents posess. However, if you trained yourself, you could feel the emotional aura of even the weakest soul." The gem saod with a small grin on her face. "Hypothetically speaking of course." 

Even though Garnet's enigmatic smile made you feel somewhat strange, the Gems' answers helped you to understand the nature of the ability you've been developing since the bubble incident.

"Connie! Can we leave now?! I can't fight Amethyst forever!!" Said Steven pushing Amethyst away from his backpack, where he hid the snacks.

"Coming Steven!" You said as you moved to his side, not before showing your gratitude to the Gems. "Thank you, for answering my questions."

"You're welcome Connie." Said Pearl before heading to the living room.

"I hope that your tennis lessons will come in handy." Said Garnet before entering the mysterious door in the wall, which opened when you weren't watching.

"Wait, how did you-" You said confused to Garnet, but when you turned around to see her, the door was already closed.

Garnet's words had the habit of echoing through your head, and this time was no exception. How did she knew about your tennis lessons if you never told the gems about them?

"Connie!" Said Steven outside of the house snapping you out of your trance.

"Sorry Steven, I was caught in my head for a moment" You apologized as you walked towards him.

You both began to walk down the stairs when you realized.

"Wait. How are we going to get to the theater? The closest theater is very far from here." You stated as Steven turned around trying to look cool.

"Don't worry, today we'll be traveling with style" He also said that trying to sound cool.

Steven ran down the rest of the stairs and moved under the space below the house. You sped up to reach him and what you saw left you speechless.

"Introducing, the fastest way of transportation and my pet... Lion!!" He said as he gestured at a pink colored lion, oddly enough, the animal wasn't radiating with energy as Garnet said.

"YOUR PET IS A LION?!!?!" You yelled in surprise, "I thought that your pet was a chubby cat you called Lion, not a actual lion you called Lion."

"Lions can be pets too, even though he just kinda do what he wants all the time." Said Steven while brushing a hand on the lion's mane, but his display of affection was interrupted by the animal moving itself to eat a lizard. "See, I don't even know where he got that."

"Wow. Even your pet makes my life look boring in comparison..." You said sadly, "The most exciting thing I have in mine is tennis practice."

"I'll judge that!" Your friend exclaimed. "Tell me more about that tennis stuff."

"Well, we just hit a ball with a racket and try to make our rival to miss the ball." You summarized the sport. "We hit the ball like this:"

You picked up a stick that was laying in the sand next to the lion, and used it as a fake racket.

"Forehand! Backhand!" You said as you swung the stick with both hands, before doing an exaggerated movement "Overhead deathstrike!!"

"Whoa... Tennis really sounds cool!!" Said an excited Steven.

"Nah, it's not really interesting, I actually made up that last one." You said, reflecting about how really boring was the only exciting thing on your life when the lion roared.

"I think that he told us to hurry up and leave... or maybe he was yawning." Said Steven, letting an uncomfortable silence to settle before speaking again. "Anyway let's go to the movie!!"

Steven hopped on to Lion and helped you to climb up the big cat's backside.

"Okay Lion, I want you to take us to the theater!" Steven ordered Lion, who appeared to be ignoring him.

"Uh... you're not listening to me." Said Steven whispering to the lion's ear.

"Is something wrong Steven?" You asked.

"Well, Lion isn't actually trained, but that's okay, I'm not trained either." Said Steven, excusing his disobeying pet for its behavior.

A moment after Steven said the word 'trained', the mighty beast you were riding roared before it began to run at full speed across the beach into the broadwalk.

You held tightly to Steven as the lion was sprinting across the sand before the animal turned its body towards the sea.

"Wait, Lion, that's the ocean!!!" Screamed Steven while the animal threw itself into the water.

You expected that Lion would start to swim with you on its back, but you didn't expected that the pink creature could stand over the water.

"You can walk on water?! Why didn't you tell me that you do the things you do?!" Said a now surprised Steven.

As the lion began to move again, you stared in awe into the vast blue horizon the ocean was. You passed alongside some seagulls who were flying low in search for fish. You saluted the crew of a fishing boat and passed over the shadow of a whale who was swimming under Lion's paws.

"Uh... Steven? Are you sure that you know what you're doing?! You asked to Steven when you couldn't see the coastline anymore.

"Maybe he knows a shortcut?" Said your friend as the lion roared again, this time, the roar expelled a large quantity amount of the energy you now recognized as soul vibrations, the sound waves gathered in a point in front of you, creating a pink swirling vortex.

You both screamed as the creature threw itself into the strange concentration of energy, sending all of you through a colorful tunnel of light at a great speed. As you were traversing the tunnel on Lion, the high speed you were traveling almost sent you both flying off the pink creature's back.

Steven hung to the animal's pink mane while you hugged him as if your life depended on it (Which to a certain extent, was).

The travel lasted for a few seconds before it ended suddenly, as you past through another vortex at the end of the colorful tunnel. After Lion exited the tunnel he stopped abruptly, something that could have thrown you off his back if you weren't holding to him.

You were about to check your surroundings before the animal you were riding decided to sit, dropping you both into a pool of water.

"Are you okay?" Asked Steven, worried about you.

"That was really cool..." You answered absentmindly

Once you moved your wet hair aside, you looked around at this place Lion brought you: It appeared to be a large cavern, it was pretty illuminated, even though there was only one entrance. There was a shallow pool of water (You had met it when you arrived) covering all the floor and in the middle of the cavern there was a smooth surfaced platform rising a few meters above the water.

The lion was standing over the circular platform, appearing to beckon both of you with his roar. You began walking behind Steven towards the staircase on a side of the plate.

"Lion! Where are you going?!" Asked Steven to his pet.

"Is this..." You said while looking at the surface of the plate, which had a spiral engraved on it with a faint pink coloration inside of a plain gray circumference. "One of those magic places you visit with the gems?"

You kept walking towards the center of the platform until Steven stepped on the pink coloured part of the floor, which began to glow brightly before it retreated into the center of the floor where it concentrated into a ray of light next to Lion.

"Yup, this is definitely a magic gem place." Said your companion after watching the plate's reaction to his presence.

You kept walking towards lion when a small pillar rose from where the ray of light was being projected.

"Lion, normally, I would love this place but we are not in the theater!!" Steven said to the animal while you were inspecting the mysterious pillar, which had the shape of a hand with a somewhat familiar emblem on its palm.

The animal just roared in response.

"What does that mean Lion?" Said an offended Steven. "What does that even mean?!"

"What if he brought us here, for a reason." You said to Steven as you brushed your fingers on a smooth side of the pillar.

"Well, maybe he did that, but if we don't hurry, we won't be able to find good seats, or get to see the previews or see any-" You interrupted his rambling as you placed his left hand over the face of the pillar, causing the platform to glow again.

"Huh, I think it likes you." You said joking. While Steven tried to remove his hand from said surface

"Um... Connie, I can't move my hand." He said wiggling his arm vigorously 

You thought for a second that he was joking, but the emotions liberated from his soul said otherwise. So you tried helping him to free his hand from the pillar.

"Okay, that's not going to work. I guess that we'll have to cut it off." You said joking again (You always had a somewhat sadistic sense of humor, you thought that it was one of the reasons of why you didn't had many friends).

"WHAT?!" Said a terrified Steven. His reaction caused that certain part of the floor to glow and reveal a pillar containing a set of twenty one different swords that hovered over the platform.

"Hey look! Swords!" You said exited to see them (You always liked how swordswomen were depicted in the fantasy books you read, so you kinda developed an interest in these arms).

"AAAAAAAAH!!!" Yelled an extremely terrified Steven, causing his aura to change and the swords to return to where they came from.

"Steven! How'd you did that?!” You asked excited.

"Uh, I don't know." Said your friend.

"Do it again! Do it again!" You said shaking Steven by his shoulder.

"Um, okay." Said Steven before trying to summon something else from the ground. He closed his eyes as he grunted and made some visible effort, but nothing came.

"Anything?" He asked.

"No..." You said somewhat disappointed before an idea struck you. "But what if..."

"Ouch!" Steven exclaimed as you pinched his left arm experimentally, "Hey! What are you-" You pulled his left ear, "Connie! What are you doing?!" 

"Experimenting." You said as you poked his sides, causing laughter to come out of Steven.

"Wait! Stop! I'm ticklish!" Said Steven between laughs as you kept poking him, "Stop! You're gonna make me pee!"

His reaction caused several parts of the floor to rise, revealing sixteen suits of armor in a circle around you.

"Woah... Steven! Look at all these armors!" You said fascinated by the ancient outfits.

"Press my nose! Press my nose!" Begged Steven, curious about the potential reaction that would cause.

You did as he wanted while making a cute "boop" sound, causing the armors to return to their storage before three things that looked like cannons rose above the ground.

"Are those light cannons?" Said Steven to himself, confirming your assumptions.

"NEXT!" You said while pulling Steven's cheeks, causing a set of twelve battle axes to rise in a similar way the swords did earlier.

You kept experimenting with Steven's body, making the platform to reveal a statue with morningstars hanging from its arms and a giant penny (Which was by far the most weird thing in the room in comparison).

"Hmm... Do you think that its worth more than a regular penny?" You asked him in a joking voice.

"Well... That would make cents." Steven said a pun feigning a serious voice before bursting into laughter with you, while Lion walked away from you, lying on the outer edge of the platform.

"You know... I honestly think that this place is great but..." You said with some sadness in your voice. "I kinda have this small feeling that I shouldn't be here."

"Don't say that Connie! I want you to be here!” His cheeks turned red after realising what he just said. "I mean, I don't want you to be here, I guess that Lion wants us to be here. I just wanted to go to the movies with you, So we could see some butt-missile explosions!"

After Steven finished his sentence, the pillar retreated into the ground releasing his hand, while the pink glow of the platform faded. A hole opened up in the platform, from where a machine best described as an oversized floating head with ice shards over its head began to rise. At the same time, triangular shapes began to appear from the floor as if they were walls.

"Should we be worried about this?" You asked Steven with fear in your voice.

"Uh..." Steven glanced at Lion, who only yawned ignoring the new situation. "Lion doesn't seem to be worried."

The floating head's top part, eyes and mouth shone a bright white before turning yellow, gathering a ball of energy that was turned into lightning in its mouth. You figured that the energy that was gathered were actually soul vibrations.

"RUN!" Yelled Steven as the head shot the ball of lightning at your direction. You managed to dodge the attack and then, you began to run behind the triangular walls of the platform.

The head changed its color to blue, its mouth spun like a gun making a whirring sound, as if the head was changing its ammunition.

"Connie!" Said Steven looking for you, ignoring that the mechanical head locked its aim on him

"Steven! Look out!!" You warned Steven as the machine shot a sphere of freezing cold energy towards him. Steven sheltered himself behind a triangle, the shot froze up a small area where it impacted.

"Steven! What do we do?!" You asked him sticking out your head from your own shelter, when you noticed that the head changed color again, this time into a bright orange, and began charging energy for another attack.

"Connie!" Said Steven as he began to run towards you, slipping over the frozen surface of the platform. The head shot again in your direction this time, you moved out the way of its attack but barely managed to dodge a second explosive fire ball launched at you.

Steven finally got by your side, holding your hands to help you stand up when the head was preparing another fire attack. Seeing the imminent danger, Steven summoned his bubble barrier to protect both of you, only for the head to shatter it with one shot, throwing you to the ground and leaving you with light burns and scrapes.

"My bubble..." Groaned Steven as Lion approached you. "Lion! I need you to get us out of here! Please!”

The beast just stared at him before it crouched, sign that he actually heard Steven. You ran into his back just in time to dodge a lightning ball, then, Lion ran around the cavern before opening a vortex with his roar.

This time the trip was quick, as Lion's vortex appeared next to the theater you wanted to visit in the first place.

"WHAT!? NOW YOU TAKE US TO THE THEATER?!" Said an upset Steven to Lion, just for him to drop you disrespectfully like he did the last time. He began to walk away from you.

"Hey! Where are you going!?" Steven yelled at the creature as it disappeared from your sight.

You reached at a burn on your cheek only for to flinch at the contact.

"Connie!" Said a worried Steven as he turned around to look for a can of soda from his backpack. "Here, Sorry that they're not cold anymore."

"Thanks." You said as you pressed the kinda cold can on your wounds. Steven mirrored your action.

"So... Do you still want to come in?" Asked your friend pointing his thumb towards the theater.

"Nah, it doesn't matter, maybe we should go back home." You said in a defeated voice.

"I'm sorry." Said Steven sadly. "This is all my fault, Crazy things always happen around me. I don't know why'd you want to hang out with me."

"I don't know why'd you want to hang out with me!" You confessed to him, "My life is so boring in comparison to yours, I don't even know why'd you want to watch this movie! This day has been proven to be more exciting that any movie I've ever seen!"

"Because I like it." Steven said, but you weren't sure if he was talking about the movie or about you. "It means a lot to me. You can say that its boring or uninteresting. But I can see other things in there."

"Things like what?" You said curiously.

Steven was about to answer that when an explosive fireball was shot at a car behind you. The robotic head appeared through Lion's open vortex, struggling to pass the rift.

"Steven! We need to find refuge while that thing is stuck in there!" You said to Steven who nodded in response. You took shelter behind some parked car as the head came out completely from Lion's portal.

"We need the Gems! They can destroy this thing!" Suggested Steven whispering.

"That's a good idea!" You whispered. "What's their number?"

"They don't have any, and I brought my phone with me...." Said Steven as he slapped his hand on his forehead.

The floating head began to shoot different shots at random places.

"How about we use Lion to fight it?" You suggested.

"We can't, he ran away remember?" Said Steven.

"In that case, How can we defeat it?” You asked.

"I don't know! Lion won't help us and the Gems can't come over here!" Said Steven, his aura filled with panic and worry along with the need to keep you safe, "How am I going to protect you?!"

His words caused the gem on his belly to glow intensely, engulfing him in a white pinkish light. He didn't seem to notice.

"Steven! Your body!" You said as you witnessed the event.

"What's wrong with it?" said Steven before turning into a stream of light that coursed through the air before materializing into a sword.

Steven's new form spun in the air briefly before it thrusted into the walkway. His weapon form was a broad pink sabre, his hilt was decorated with thorny motifs, having a rose resting at the base of the blade and had a tiny rose at his pommel. his gem rested inside of the handguard.

"Connie? What happened?! Where are you" Said Steven's voice through the metal.

"Steven, I'm right here." You said soothingly, surprised that he didn't realized his change. "You're okay but... Ugh, how do I say this?"

"Say what?" The sword said still frightened.

"That you became a weapon." You said, still not believing completely in the words coming out of your mouth.

An ice shot hit the car you were hiding.

"Cool! How do I look?" Asked a curious Steven.

"Well... You're a pink sabre." You said bluntly as another explosion was heard from the other side of the street.

"What!?" Yelled Steven. "Why I'm a sword?! I don't even like swords anymore!!"

"Well, look it in this way," You said to his blade, "Now we can defeat that thing!"

"How?" Said Your sharp friend, "I can't even move myself or see what's happening there, its like Garnet told us the other day."

"But... What if I used you like Garnet did with Pearl?." You suggested.

"You know how to wield a sword!?" Said Steven surprised.

"No. But I hope that it's similar to wield a tennis racket." You said before using both of your hands to pull him off the walkway. Once you laid a hand on his handle, you felt a powerful surge of soul vibrations running through your arm. You would had dropped him if the energy coursing through your veins wasn't Steven's. His energy appeared to give you strength, as Steven's heavy form weighed like a feather in your hands.

With Steven in your hands, you abandoned your refuge, and faced the cursed machine.

"HEY YOU!!" You yelled daringly at the machine who turned its yellow face towards you, "GIVE ME YOUR BEST SHOT!" 

The machine appeared to follow your advice, as it changed colors rapidly while its mouth spun even faster, shooting energy spheres in all directions.

You moved Steven trying to protect yourself with his blade, reflecting a lightning sphere towards the rampaging automaton.

The machine shot another lightning towards you, only to be deflected by your movements while you and Steven yelled at the same time: "FOREHAND!!" Then, it shot an ice sphere you deflected in the same fashion, "BACKHAND!!"

Enraged, the machine began charging a big fireball before throwing it to you. You received it directly with Steven's blade.

"OVERHEEAAD!!!! DEATHSTRIIIIKE!!!!!!!" You shouted in unison before moving Steven down, returning the fiery sphere right into the machine's mouth. This caused a malfunction which ultimately led it to disappear into a big explosion.

You stared with stars in your eyes at the explosion. You were sure that Steven would be doing the same, even if he didn't had eyes at the moment.

"Just like tennis practice..." You whispered in awe.

"Magical tennis practice." Corrected your weapon.

"Wait. Did you saw that?" You asked him.

"Yes..." He answered tentatively.

"Since when?!" You asked again.

"When we began to scream." He said as a small reflection of him appeared near the pommel. "Having a fireball on your face is awesome though."

"I knew that exaggerated and nonexistent sword skills are useful in real life!" You stated with a grin on your face.

"In your face Pearl!" Steven said.

You began to laugh in the middle of the wrecked street, Lion reappeared from some alley and began to walk in your direction.

"Steven?" You said to your friend after your laughter died.

"Yes, Connie?" He asked.

"Don't you think that you should go back to normal?" You asked to the sword in your hands.

"Uh... I'm not sure if I can do that Connie." Said an embarrassed Steven. "Remember what happened when I first used my bubble?"

"Oh. Well, that's okay. Maybe the gems will know how to get you back to normal." You said reassuringly into his blade. "In fact, why don't we watch a movie and worry about this later."

★ ★ ★

The theater's attendant rose from her hiding spot behind the register staring at you, an indian girl holding a giant weapon with a pink lion behind.

"Hello" Said Steven.

"One kid, a sword and a lion for dogcopter 3 please" You said to the attendant.

"Uuh.... Do you have a rewards card?" Said the attendant, possibly trying to not upset you.

★ ★ ★

You were sitting in a empty theater with Lion and Steven watching the 3D movie you wanted to watch with your best friend (You leaned his form into the seat and put the 3D glasses in the blade, where he told you that he could watch perfectly).

"Whoa..." Awed Steven when a building was blown away into pieces. "Was that on the book?"

"Nah, they're taking some liberties" You said, happy to see that the production didn't change a lot of it.

"Steven?" You whispered.

"Yes, Connie?" He said trough a small reflection on his handguard.

"Back on the street, before being interrupted by the robot, you were talking about something." You reminded Steven. "Were you talking about the movie... Or about me?

You saw the saber glow a faint pink before it answered.

"I... Was talking about you Connie." Steven confessed with embarrassment.

A small moment of silence grow between both of you, interrupted by the now forgotten movie.

"Can you-" You said nervously with a wild blush over your face. "Can you tell me what things you see in me?"

Another explosion from the movie was heard.

"Well... You are really smart." He began listing, "You are very curious, as if you wanted to know everything just for fun. You have this faint smile on your face every time you talk about your life. You are willing to hang out with me, even though all the weird stuff that happens around me. And most importantly: You make me feel special."

You stared at him with a tear forming in one of your eyes. "Thank you."

"Why?" He asked intrigued.

"For being my friend." You said wiping that single tear from you eye before returning to watch the movie that was near to end.


	4. Pre-summer picnic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven invited you to a stress relieving picnic

You were studying biology for your final exams in your bedroom, listening to some classical music your mom told you was stimulating for the brain.

Your bedroom was spacious, it had a purple matting over the floor, and had a magenta wallpaper decorated with several book posters. Your blue colored bed was pressed into one of the corners of the room, there was a tiny nightstand beside it, where a lamp was resting alongside an alarm clock and a dusty Nintendo DS. Your wardrobe was embedded into one of the walls of the room, you had a huge bookshelf filled with books alongside it. There was also a pair of desks, one had a mirror behind it and had several decorations on it, alongside a hairbrush you used to brush your long hair, while the other had a light blue laptop and books all over it, as this one was where you did your homework and checked your internet stuff. You had some potted plants on the frame of the window: a tiny fern and a little cactus you watered everyday. Your bedroom didn't had regular lamps or lightbulbs to illuminate it, instead, it had series of small lights over the ceiling which illuminated your room at night bright enough to see, but leaving enough darkness to make a candlelit ambience. 

You giggled at the text book's contents, which missed information regarding the soul, something that would sound non-scientific and ridiculous if you hadn't been frequently experiencing how real it was.

Since your 'explosive' visit to the theater, you began to train your sensorial ability as Garnet may or may not suggested to you. Your training consisted mostly of focusing your attention over your mom's soul when she went to sleep. The outcome of this small exercise was fructiferous, letting you feel soul vibrations in a more accurate way, as you could feel your mom's emotional aura a little bit more precisely, starting to feel her emotions instead of a cloudy mix of emotions. From her, you could feel love, for her family, relief, when your dad came back from work safe, and several other emotions that were present in her life.

You were about to finish your study session when your cellphone rang. You had a seemingly outdated flip cellphone, but it had access to internet and some apps like some cellphones you had seen in various anime series. You flipped your phone to answer.

"Hello?" You said to the receiver, unaware of who the caller was.

"Hi Connie!" said a familiar voice.

"Steven!" You said almost squealing, "I'm glad to hear you! What are you doing?"

"I'm baking a strawberry cake," Said Steven with a whirring sound caused by a mixer in the background.

"You know how to bake?" You asked incredulously.

"Yeah, Pearl taught me, she enjoys the process of bakery, even if she doesn't like to eat it." Answered Steven.

"Wow! That's really cool! But... How did you get fresh strawberries? Organic strawberries are very expensive as there are no fields here in Delmarva." You said sadly, as strawberries are one of your favorite fruits.

"I know of a place where I can get as many strawberries as I want." Said Steven smugly. "What are you doing?"

"I've just finished studying for my exams." You said before throwing yourself over your bed "And right now I'm going to practice with my violin for a while."

"You also play an instrument!?" Said a surprised Steven while a screeching sound was heard, probably the oven.

"Yeah!" You said with the same surprised tone as him. "What do you play?"

"Well, my dad taught me how to play the ukelele, the drums, the bass guitar, and the acoustic guitar." Said Steven with enormous pride, "But I'm more sentimentally attached to my ukulele. Maybe, someday, you should bring your violin to my house so we can make a jam session together."

"That sounds great Steven, but I can't do that right now," You said while looking at the textbooks over your desk. "These exams are kinda overwhelming."

"I understand." Said Steven sadly. "Hey! I have an idea!"

"What is it?" You asked curiously.

"Are you free this Saturday?" Steven asked.

"Yes, why? You raised your eyebrow.

"Would you like to rest from those exams and have a nice relaxing picnic at the lighthouse park in Beach City?" Proposed Steven.

"Sure!" You said almost jumping from the bed.

"Ok, bring a mat and I'll bring the food." Said your friend.

"Only if a giant ant demon doesn't appear to steal it." You responded jokingly.

"I can't promise that." He joked.

You both laughed at the joke before Steven said that he had to hang up.

"I have to go Connie, Nobody likes a burnt out cake, except for Amethyst." Said Steven.

"Okay Steven, save me a slice please." You said.

"No problem Connie, see you next Saturday!" Said Steven before hanging up.

You held your phone close to your chest for a while, thinking about the picnic. You stood up to reach for your violin's case from your wardrobe and began practicing in an effort to drown the unbearable excitement caused from the idea of spending another day alongside Steven.

★ ★ ★

You went to Beach City that Saturday wearing a green mint T-shirt, a pair of blue denim shorts and the same red shoes from the last time, carrying a folded white tarp under your arm. You walked in the direction of the lighthouse park, which was a grassy area around the lighthouse that was sitting over the Gems' temple. Once you reached a comfortable area near the lighthouse, close to a white fence placed on the edge of the cliff you've never seen before, You extended the tarp over the grass and sat over it, starting to wait for Steven.

You waited for 10 minutes, looking at the ocean and the small town that settled near it, before a pink figure made itself present near the base of the hill the park was located, it was Lion, carrying a decayed Steven with a picnic basket.

"Steven! Over here!" You waved at him excitedly.

The lion noticed you and walked in your direction, Steven was pressing his face into Lion's mane. As lion came closer, you felt Steven's emotional aura radiating with sadness.

Once the animal reached the area where the picnic was about to take place, it lied on the grass, where Steven gave you the basket he was carrying before sliding of Lion's back into the ground.

"Is something wrong?" You asked worried.

"No, I'm alright." He said as he sat down in the mat.

"Are you sure?" You asked again as he began to pull the food out of the basked. Steven had made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a couple of glass soda bottles, some durian juice boxes and two slices of strawberry cake covered with white icing with two forks.

"Yeah..." He said as he took a bite off a sandwich.

"Okay..." You said in mild disbelief.

"Is that fence new?" You asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, Pearl put it yesterday because of an accident." Said Steven before taking another bite.

"Was that accident gem-related?!" You asked, incapable of holding back your curiosity for magical stuff.

"Maybe..." He whined.

"Really! What happened?!" You asked without restraining your excitement before asking again in a gentler voice. "Tell me, please?"

"I don't want to talk about it right now..." Said your friend.

"Oh... I understand." You lowered your head in disappointment.

An awkward silence settled in the ambient before you tried to create a conversation topic.

"Is that the cake you made the other day?" You pointed out a finger in the direction of the slices.

"Yeah..." Steven whined with a mouthful of sandwich.

"Can I try it?" You said almost drooling over the pastry.

"Sure..." Said your still depressed friend.

Even though Steven's attitude was stressing you out, you leaned gingerly towards a plate with a slice of the mouthwatering strawberry cake. You took a small forkful of the dessert and made a delighted sound when you tasted it, the biscuit was very sweet and juicy and was complemented by the acid taste of the strawberries between them. 

"Hmmm! Steven, This is pretty good!" You complimented him before taking another forkful of the cake.

"Really....?" Said the melancholic Steven.

Steven's gloomy mood made it impossible for you to try to cheer him up, and ultimately, made you snap at him.

"I CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE!!!" You yelled almost dropping your cake, Steven flinched at your sudden outburst.

"What's wrong?" He said.

"Your attitude is wrong!" You said. "The only thing you've done for the last five minutes was complaining. Are you really sure that you're fine? Is something related to that fence bugging you?"

"Ok, I'll tell you why the fence is bugging me." Said Steven, touched by your interest.

★ ★ ★

Last Thursday Steven and Amethyst were playing near the lighthouse after making sure that it was perfect for a picnic. Amethyst started to move dangerously close to the cliff the temple was settled, when a piece of the ground collapsed under her feet, causing her to fall several meters into a large rock creating a cracking sound. He ran down into the beach where he found Amethyst looking seemingly fine before she uncovered her always concealed left eye, revealing an oversized eyeball. He called for the Gems, who were already approaching to them. The Gems examinated their partner and concluded that Amethyst cracked her gem, Steven told them how'd she managed to crack her gem, when Pearl said that this could have been prevented if they had put a fence around the cliff before.

"And that's the story of why that fence is bugging me." Steven said while finishing his sandwich.

"That's it?" You said completely intrigued by his story, "What happened to Amethyst?"

"Uuhhh..." Said a noncooperative Steven as he pierced a juice box with a straw before taking a sip.

"C'mon, tell me the rest." You pleaded.

"I don't want to..." Said Steven with melancholy returning to his voice.

"Steven?" You said in a soft voice, making him to cross his arms in opposition.

"Steven...." You said again purring this time, causing Steven to roll his eyes somewhere to avoid eye contact with you.

"STEVEN!" You said in a harsh tone.

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you." Surrendered Steven "But only if you lend me your glasses."

"I'll give them to you if you give me the rest of your juice" You conditioned him

"I already took a sip from it, do you still want it?" Said your friend.

"Some backwashed juice is not going to kill me Steven." You said as you gave your glasses to him and he gave you his juice box.

"How do I look?" Said Steven with your glasses on.

"To be honest, I have no idea." You said squinting your eyes, trying to focus your bad eyesight into Steven.

"Well, Where was I?" Said Steven before continuing his story.

★ ★ ★

Garnet told him, that Amethyst's cracked gem was risky for her, causing several alterations to her body, Steven asked the Gems what were they going to do. Garnet explained him that his mother had magical tears capable of healing any kind of injury and she thought that it might be possible for Steven to share that power with her.

The boy tried to cry but didn't shed a single tear, leaving Amethyst with her cracked gem in danger. But Pearl told him that there was other way to heal her, a fountain in his mom's private garden which water had the same properties of her tears. Amethyst said that she was fine before she made a funny face and begun to talk backwards With this happening, they took a journey to the miraculous fountain.

The gems reached their destination, a dark thorny dome between the mountains. Pearl said that without Rose's care, the plants became a mess before she tried to cut them with her weaponized arm alongside Garnet. While the Gems were trying to access the fountain, Steven took care of Amethyst who possibly told him that maybe he would cry if he pricked his hand with a thorn. As he tried to follow her advice, the vines he were approaching tried to ensnare him, but failed to do so because of Amethyst tackled him to safety. However, Amethyst's reckless action caused the crack on her gem to grow, altering her body even further as her head and left foot switched place. Pearl would had freaked out if Garnet didn't punched a large stone into the black dome to open a path to the fountain inside.

Once Steven and the gems entered the dome, they could see the fountain they were looking for. The fountain was a large statue of Steven's mom depicted with a peaceful expression, placed over a large basin shaped as a flower with four smaller statues of her at its edge, the only thing missing from the majestic statue was the healing substance that should be pouring from it. The sight of statue made Steven feel somewhat melancholic, and hurried the gems around him in the case that a tear should run down his cheek.

★ ★ ★

"ARGH!!!! HEADACHE!!" Screamed Steven, probably because of your glasses' lenses.

"Then take off my glasses and finish your story." You nagged at him.

Your friend removed the spectacles and gave them back before continuing.

★ ★ ★

Nothing dropped out of Steven's eye, and to make things worse, Amethyst's extremities were replaced with her whips, only that this time, they were connected to her head, left leg and right arm. Worried by their friend and unable to use Steven's possibly latent ability, Pearl and Garnet left to search for something that had stopped the fountain's flowing tears. After they left, Steven was alone with Amethyst and her bizarre body next to the fountain. Amethyst tried to said something to Steven, only to frustrate him and upset him asking to the fountain why he couldn't cry, he then walked into one of the smaller statues of his mom and cuddled on its lap, he told the statue that he didn't know how to feel about her, wishing to met her, so he could feel the same way the gems and his dad feel, so he could feel sad and cry magical tears.

★ ★ ★

You sniffled at the sadness of his story, interrupting it.

"Are you okay?" Asked Steven after seeing you with almost tears in your eyes.

"Please go on." You said taking another forkful of your cake.

★ ★ ★

After the emotional moment he had, a set of thorny black vines appeared behind the statue he was cuddled. He evaded the vines attack, and ran towards Amethyst's almost disembodied head as more thorny bushes came towards her, she commanded her body the run in their direction and once it caught up with them, Steven grabbed both her body and head and threw himself into the basin of the fountain.

Steven pulled Amethyst's body next to him as he tried to keep her safe. He said Amethyst that he was sorry for being useless, only for her to mock him in a broken, agonizing voice with tears beginning to form under her eyes. Steven pulled her closer, begging to the Universe to let him have healing powers as a tear dropped from his eye, He realized that and waited for Amethyst's gem to heal but after a long moment of wait, Steven yelled in frustration before a large flow of water poured over them. The water covered both of them and overflowed out of the basin. Steven told you that while he was underwater, he could see the fountain stretching its arms towards him but when he reached the surface the statue was static as before. Amethyst swam in his direction fully healed now before splashing water playfully with him. The thorny dome covering the fountain disappeared in a shower of pink petals and the aggressive bushes became tame as pink flowers sprouted on them. Garnet came back to the fountain walking under a decorative arc carrying Pearl's spear form in arms, She moved towards him before Steven told them that his tears revived the fountain, but Garnet told him that they were the ones who revived the fountain by clearing the source of water of bushes. Pearl returned to her habitual form, grabbed Steven's shoulder and told him that he doesn't have healing tears, that he would never be truly a Crystal Gem and that they don't want to have anything to do with him.

★ ★ ★

"She didn't said that." You said in disbelief.

"That's how I felt it" Said a sad Steven.

"So..." You put down your plate on the mat. "That's why you've been feeling so down lately?"

"I don't know." Said your low spirited friend.

"Do you want the rest of your juice?" You said offering back the box.

"Nah... I'm not in the mood." He said sadly, letting another uncomfortable silence to settle in.

"You know?" He began to talk again, tears forming in his eyes, "Everyone told me how great was mom, and I don't think that I can fill her place, I don't even have any of her abilities." He sobbed, "What if I never get her powers?"

"But you can turn into a sword don't you?" You said reassuringly. 

"Yeah but, I don't know how to do it." He said sobbing. "And even if I know how, no one can wield me."

"Oh, right..." You said, remembering the day of the movies, when you took Steven's weapon form to his house on lion and asked the Gems for advice on how to revert him to his human form, not before the Gems tried to lift him up and failing to do so (Even Garnet, whose punches were capable of shattering mountains, was able to lift Steven), getting to the conclusion that they weren't compatible with his soul.

"If I don't have any powers at all..." He continued, "Then there's no reason for me to be with them, I won't be able to accompany them on missions and help them to protect the world."

"Steven..." You said looking at his teary eyes, "You don't need any powers to be here with me."

You took his hand and leaned forward to him, having the intention of kissing him to make him feel a little better (Also because you kinda wanted to do that since your first visit to his house) when you felt a little pain in your eyes, you felt your vision becoming blurry even though you were wearing your glasses.

"Is something wrong?" Said Steven worried about you.

"I don't know." You answered as the pain subsided, your vision still blurry, "I think that there's something wrong with my glasses."

You removed your glasses off your face and then you couldn't believe what happened next.

"Steven..." You said almost speechless, "I can see you.... I can see without my glasses!! You healed my eyes!!!"

"But, how?" Said Steven in awe before you both looked at the empty juice box you shared at your side.

"I never had magical healing tears... I had magical healing spit!" Steven pumped his arms into the air, as you were just sitting on your seat, processing what just happened. "C'mon Lion, let's tell the gems!"

Your friend hopped on the lion and ran downhill to tell his friends about his discovery. But you only stayed in place, thinking about what will your parents say about how your bad eyesight healed magically. They would probably forbid you from seeing Steven ever again, from never seeing the only friend you had in your live, and the one person who changed it. You just decided that you won't tell your parents about this, so you took your glasses and removed the pink lenses from their frame, deciding to be there for him, even if it meant lying to your parents more than usual.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, constructive criticism is well received!


End file.
